UK universities accused of punishing students for speaking up for Palestine
Students and academics faced sanctions for actions including chanting, clapping and wearing keffiyehs, the report said. Punishments included suspensions, campus bans, degree withdrawals and threats to students' visa status
Highlights:
- Amnesty documented restrictions on Palestine solidarity at 26 UK university cases.
- Students faced suspensions, campus bans, degree withdrawals and deportation threats.
- Universities imposed pre-emptive punishments before disciplinary investigations concluded.
- Restrictions disproportionately affected Muslim, Palestinian, Arab and international students.
- Oxford, Cambridge and LSE faced scrutiny over protest restrictions.
- Amnesty urged universities to adopt its Defend Dissent Charter.
Amnesty International has documented restrictions on Palestine solidarity activities at multiple UK universities, including measures against students and academics for expressing views critical of Israel, according to a report examining 26 case studies between April 2022 and September 2025.
The report covers events from 7 October 2023 to 30 September 2025, alongside the preceding 18 months. It says many of the restrictions failed to meet the high legal threshold required under international and UK law for interference with political speech and peaceful assembly, reports Amnesty.
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Students and academics faced sanctions for actions including chanting, clapping and wearing keffiyehs, the report said. Punishments included suspensions, campus bans, degree withdrawals and threats to students' visa status.
The report also found that universities frequently imposed precautionary measures before disciplinary hearings had concluded. These measures, combined with prolonged investigations and unclear timelines or appeal procedures, effectively became pre-emptive punishments in some cases.
Universities also applied disciplinary policies to peaceful gatherings in established protest spaces, including campus squares, foyers and student union buildings. The report said such activities were labelled as "trespass", "disruptive" or "offensive" without evidence of targeted harm. Other measures included requiring advance approval for protests and seeking court injunctions.
The restrictions had a disproportionate impact on visibly Muslim students, Palestinians, Arabs, racialised communities and international students, according to the report.
It also described a wider network of influences on university decisions, including direct government pressure, instructions from the Department for Education, regulatory direction, advocacy lobbying, and advice from private law firms and security contractors.
Kerry Moscogiuri, chief executive of Amnesty International UK, criticised the restrictions on freedom of expression and peaceful protest.
"This is an attack on our freedom of speech and the right to protest from the very institutions who are supposed to encourage free thought."
"Students and academics care about the victims of Israel's genocide in Gaza. It's beyond belief that some of our prominent universities see this as a threat that requires punitive measures like court injunctions, and harsh punishments that leave students with their lives turned upside down."
Moscogiuri said the restrictions formed part of a broader crackdown on people expressing their views on Israel's actions in Gaza and other issues.
"This is part of a wider crackdown on communities coming together to make their voices heard on Israel's genocide of Palestinians in Gaza and other issues they care about... Universities should be an environment in which students feel safe in coming together and demonstrating on the issues they care about. That's why we are asking universities to commit to our Defend Dissent Charter."
University cases
At the University of Oxford, student encampments began in May 2024 to demand divestment from arms suppliers to Israel. The university responded by calling the police, launching prolonged investigations, restricting access to libraries and other facilities, and requiring advance permission to attend academic activities, the report said.
The University of Cambridge sought a wide-ranging court injunction in March 2025 that would prohibit protests in symbolic locations, including King's Parade, Senate House Passage and areas near the Old Schools. Civil society groups criticised the proposed injunction as a pre-emptive restriction that would criminalise peaceful protest.
At the London School of Economics (LSE), seven students held a peaceful protest lasting between 15 and 25 minutes in the Student Services Centre foyer on 7 July 2024. The students wore keffiyehs and T-shirts bearing red handprints.
LSE subsequently imposed precautionary campus bans that restricted the students' access to on-campus medical care, according to the report.
Internal emails disclosed through a Subject Access Request revealed senior university leaders describing the protest as a "temper tantrum by children" and referring to students as "dressed as terrorists". The emails also showed proposals for expulsions before a formal investigation had taken place.
Student describes suspension and deportation threat
The report also documented the case of Usama Ghanem, a 22-year-old King's College London student who was suspended in 2025 over pro-Palestinian activism. He was told to "return to [Egypt] during this period of suspension", despite having previously been detained and tortured there. His suspension was lifted following a review in September 2026.
Ghanem said his experience at the university had contradicted his expectations after leaving Egypt.
"I left an authoritarian regime in Egypt to find one at King's College London. For protesting a genocide our university was funding and demanding divestment, I was indefinitely suspended, monitored, and threatened with deportation to the very authoritarian regime I had fled."
He said the university had also disciplined other students involved in the Palestine encampment.
"As a lead negotiator for our Palestine encampment, I saw King's discipline 25 other students too. This was about more than punishment, it was an attempt to intimidate us into silence. A university should protect dissent, not surveil and punish students for challenging its complicity in genocide."
The report calls on universities to commit to Amnesty International's Defend Dissent Charter, which seeks to protect students' and academics' rights to freedom of expression, peaceful assembly and protest.
